New data reveals child care fees have now soared by 39.2 per cent since the Liberals were elected in 2013.

The Department of Education’s most recent data (March 2021) shows national child care fees rose by 2.4 per cent over the previous 12 months – more than double the Consumer Price Index.

Federal Member for Blair, Shayne Neumann said the data shows the situation is worse across Ipswich, the Somerset Region and Karana Downs area, where child care fees have risen 4.1 per cent in the past 12 months, while Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) fees have risen 5.5 per cent in the same period.

“This steep increase occurred despite fees being frozen for six months of that year due to the pandemic,” Mr Neumann said.

“With the Child Care Subsidy indexed to the CPI, these figures show the subsidy is failing to keep up with fee increases, meaning parents are paying more and more out of pocket.

“The data shows that local families are being hit the hardest.

“Scott Morrison’s dud child care policy will fall lightyears short of what is required to bring genuine and permanent fee relief to Australian families.”

The Morrison-Joyce Government’s dud policy will:

• Only provide some relief to one in four families;
• Completely leave out parents with one child in child care (74 per cent of families);
• Rip the extra support away from families with two children in care once the older child goes to school; and
• Do nothing to put downward pressure on rapid fee growth.

“By contrast, Labor has a plan to bring down the cost of child care and keep it down.

“An Albanese Labor Government will make child care cheaper for 97 per cent of families in the system, regardless of how many children a family has in care.

“Importantly, we will task the ACCC with designing a price regulation mechanism to shed light on costs and fees and drive them down for good.

“The Productivity Commission will also conduct a comprehensive review of the sector with the aim of implementing a universal 90 per cent subsidy for all families.

“Only Labor has a plan to fix the Coalition’s broken child care system.”